First, my thoughts on weeds: I've always had a yard full of flowers and vegetables on the three properties I've owned in my life. Sometimes, way more than I could handle when I had small children or worked full time. No matter how busy I was though (or am), weeding was something I really tried to make time for, even if it meant putting off more pleasurable activities. There were times though that I got behind because of the reasons stated above and during those times I probably had too much garden for my circumstances. The best way to stay on top of weeds is to do it a few minutes every day; if you let it go a while, it becomes a dreadful job and pretty soon you can't keep up and you just throw up your hands and let them go. I have done that. Too many of us do that and it's too bad. I became a super diligent weeder about a decade or more ago when my dear friend Lillian gave me one of the best birthday gifts of my life - a tour of Tasha Tudor's Vermont gardens. Do you know who Tasha Tudor is? She is a pretty famous children's book illustrator and her gardens and homestead in Vermont were widely photographed in many magazines and books. I have four of her books and many winter days have found me perusing them over and over. She made her own clothes and dressed exclusively in the styles from the mid 1800s while living in the present 20th century, she raised corgis and goats, her son built her home with his own hands to duplicate one from the 1800s as well and her gardens were lush and extremely floriferous and old fashioned. And she became a bit of a recluse. She began to allow tours of her property the final decade of her life and tickets were very limited, so when Lillian called me (from Elko Nevada) to say she had a surprise for me and was coming to NH to share it with me, I almost died when she revealed where we were going together. The garden tour was glorious and I was pinching myself the whole time and we even got to meet Tasha, who, pretty fragile in her late 90s, came out and allowed herself to be photographed with the tour group. She didn't talked to us, she just smiled, posed, and went back in to her house. She died not long after our trip to her home. There was only one disappointment in the whole event; the gardens, though beautiful and so much like the pictures I had been devouring for years, were weed ridden and even unkempt in areas. She doesn't hire full time gardeners and pretty much ran her farm on her own with a bit of help from her son who lived close by and a man who planted things for her now and then. We had paid (or Lillian had and all the other folks in our group) a pretty steep price for the tickets and I think I expected the gardens to be as well manicured as they were in her books. It goes along with sage advice I was given by my former mother-in-law who said to me' "no matter what, always make sure you make the beds and wash your dishes (no dirty dishes piled in the sink) - because no matter how nice or pretty your things are, a room will look messy". She added that if the beds are made and dishes done, even messy rooms look tidier. True words and advice I have always followed. The same goes for weeds. You can have lovely flowers and well designed borders and a bountiful vegetable garden, but if they are full of weeds, they look messy and unpleasant and the loveliness is diminished. I went home that day from Vermont and as Lillian and I sat on my back patio looking out over my lush, flower stuffed garden beds, I noticed too many weeds here and there and errant bittersweet vines coming up in my rose beds. I remember telling her how Tasha's weeds had affected me and I even ran over to my roses and ripped a bittersweet vine out as we discussed this. That day turned me in to a consistent, disciplined weeder and tidy gardener and I don't have to apologize for my weeds like I used to (or beds or dishes). So, stay on top of your weeds! Don't start out with good intentions in the spring and then lose them and end up frustrated and overwhelmed - a few minutes every day is all it takes - I weed as I tour the yard each day and greet all of my "children". Ok, preaching done.
Now to happier things. Flowers, ice cream, painted porches and Newburyport MA.
Last Monday I went to Newburyport MA, one of my all time favorite towns, to go through a Designer House show. Dan had a bunch of appointments so he didn't go along. The house is situated across the street from Joppa Park and the mouth of the Merrimack river that flows right out to the ocean and it was built in 1820 and had been scheduled for demolition due to its poor condition. Instead it was purchased by a group who restored it and asked local designers to pick a room to decorate to showcase their wares and talents. The house (and garden) is now in turn key condition, so lovely, and for sale ($2.4 million). I adore old houses but it was a bit too modernly done for my taste. However, I loved what I thought was wall paper in the front hallway but to my surprise and delight was all hand painted by a local artist. I loved it so much I took a ton of pictures and then wondered if I should try this technique in the bottom floor powder room off the family room at our house. Take a look:
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